It's a man-portable, low altitude surveillance drone meant to be used by small units in field using off-shelf components. What the Iranians should really be worried about is the fact that small units of ostensibly Special Operations or Other Government Agency soldiers are setting on their borders.

BronyMedic:It's a man-portable, low altitude surveillance drone meant to be used by small units in field using off-shelf components. What the Iranians should really be worried about is the fact that small units of ostensibly Special Operations or Other Government Agency soldiers are setting on their borders.

This.

It probably is SF given that it's in Iran. But Ravens are issued on the squad level to tons of troops. I'm an MP and my company currently has roughly a dozen Raven qualified soldiers. These things are essentially RC propeller planes with cheapo cameras. Any decent RC hobbyist can probably build something better in an afternoon.

Brought down by Iranian air defense? HA! So basically the battery died and it crashed. Oh well. They were designed to be cheap expendable Private-operated drones in the first place.

taurusowner:BronyMedic: It's a man-portable, low altitude surveillance drone meant to be used by small units in field using off-shelf components. What the Iranians should really be worried about is the fact that small units of ostensibly Special Operations or Other Government Agency soldiers are setting on their borders.

This.

It probably is SF given that it's in Iran. But Ravens are issued on the squad level to tons of troops. I'm an MP and my company currently has roughly a dozen Raven qualified soldiers. These things are essentially RC propeller planes with cheapo cameras. Any decent RC hobbyist can probably build something better in an afternoon.

Brought down by Iranian air defense? HA! So basically the battery died and it crashed. Oh well. They were designed to be cheap expendable Private-operated drones in the first place.

Nuh uh! I watched "Act of Valor" the other day, and the real-time video sent back from the drone had little computer boxes that zoomed in on important stuff.

I for one am, outraged that they are considering defending against an invasion by the US. US invasions and bombings are our gifts to other nations and are only done for the highest moral and humane reasons. If they can't understand this maybe they should turn Iran into a glass parking lot?????

LOL, Ravens. I remember the repair kits for those things had popsicle sticks in them. We lost so many of those things in Afghanistan that it became a running joke and the status on the ISR spreadsheet was always red.

taurusowner:BronyMedic: It's a man-portable, low altitude surveillance drone meant to be used by small units in field using off-shelf components. What the Iranians should really be worried about is the fact that small units of ostensibly Special Operations or Other Government Agency soldiers are setting on their borders.

This.

It probably is SF given that it's in Iran. But Ravens are issued on the squad level to tons of troops. I'm an MP and my company currently has roughly a dozen Raven qualified soldiers. These things are essentially RC propeller planes with cheapo cameras. Any decent RC hobbyist can probably build something better in an afternoon.

Brought down by Iranian air defense? HA! So basically the battery died and it crashed. Oh well. They were designed to be cheap expendable Private-operated drones in the first place.

You should be lucky they let enlisted men fly them. Officers love their flight pay

Vectron:I for one am, outraged that they are considering defending against an invasion by the US. US invasions and bombings are our gifts to other nations and are only done for the highest moral and humane reasons. If they can't understand this maybe they should turn Iran into a glass parking lot?????

Those aren't pre-invasion drones. They're "Are u guyz planting sea mines?" drones. One thing SEALs do is underwater reconnaissance and demolition; they don't only schwack dudes. The trigger for war (not invasion; that's not gonna happen) is Iran blocking the Straits of Hormuz, and I'm sure we have every available type of eyes on that.

Any reason we don't build a v2.0 of these things with an "extra battery" look-a-like loaded with C4. Let the Iranians "capture" it and take it to the super secret underground evil genus lair (or the local military base, you know, whichever) and then have the thing "accidentally" explode while they're playing with it. Seems to me a couple "accidents" like that and theyll just start destroying any downed drones with tank fire rather than risk it...

Fizpez:Any reason we don't build a v2.0 of these things with an "extra battery" look-a-like loaded with C4. Let the Iranians "capture" it and take it to the super secret underground evil genus lair (or the local military base, you know, whichever) and then have the thing "accidentally" explode while they're playing with it. Seems to me a couple "accidents" like that and theyll just start destroying any downed drones with tank fire rather than risk it...

Because that would be a pretty blatant act of war and American civilians would die because of it. It's a dumb idea and you should feel dumb for even saying it.

weiserfireman:I thought this particular drone was battery powered. Would it have enough of a heat signature for that missile to work?

Hey, it works in Black Ops II. That game is totally real, right?

Fizpez:Any reason we don't build a v2.0 of these things with an "extra battery" look-a-like loaded with C4. Let the Iranians "capture" it and take it to the super secret underground evil genus lair (or the local military base, you know, whichever) and then have the thing "accidentally" explode while they're playing with it. Seems to me a couple "accidents" like that and theyll just start destroying any downed drones with tank fire rather than risk it...

Because that would be known as an "Act of War" by the United States, and would result in - most likely - an Iranian child being turned into pink mist before it was an "Iranian Soldier of Evil Jihadism."(TM).